Post Tagged with: "spiralfrog"

“We Don’t Have Any Choice”

Last week, the Vancouver Sun ran a lengthy article on the music industry.  It was a reasonable piece – comments from CRIA, CIRPA, and many artists presented some (though not all) perspectives.  That said, CRIA's Graham Henderson provided comments that merit a response.  According to Henderson:

We want laws that offer choice. Right now we don't have any choice and we want the ability to be able to try our business model in a digital environment and have at least the majority of people respect our wishes, recognizing all along that there are going to be people who take from us.

Leaving aside the fact that much of the copying that Henderson characterizes as "taking from us" is covered by the private copying levy that has now generated nearly $200 million since the CPCC began collecting the levy in 2000, CRIA is effectively saying that the only way the industry can offer digital music online is with DRM supported by anti-circumvention legislation.  Anyone with even the slightest familiarity with digital music in Canada recognizes that this is utter nonsense.

Read more ›

September 5, 2007 5 comments News

NY Times on Monetizing P2P

The New York Times looks at firms trying to develop ad-based P2P models, with news that Nettwerk is seeding songs with ads in P2P networks.

Read more ›

April 23, 2007 Comments are Disabled News

Major Record Labels Adopt ACS

The online community is buzzing today over the announcement that Universal Music plans to "give away" music online through a new service called SpiralFrog (which is also negotiating with other major labels including EMI).  The approach is not particularly innovative – the service will be ad-supported, something people like Terry McBride from Nettwerk has been advocating for months and other sectors (television, radio, online gaming, newspapers) have been offering for some time.  Moreover, the service is likely to face some challenges – by relying on DRM that is not compatible with the iPod, it is leaving out a large part of the market. 

That said, there are at least two bigger points worth making.

Read more ›

August 29, 2006 5 comments News